New verse to ballad discovered, Kingston Pike to be renamed

Late last month, Sara Brown was rummaging around in her attic when she stumbled across an old box of letters and other documents. While reading through the items, she found what appeared to be a handwritten copy of the lyrics to The Ballad of Davy Crockett, the Disney song with lyrics written by Tom Blackburn.

Brown immediately called historian and Davy Crockett expert David Croquet. Croquet examined the document and was able to authenticate it after a few days of research.

The first 20 verses of the ballad are well known, and celebrated throughout the south, but there was a 21st verse that was never recorded:

Davy once took a trip down to Knoxvul, then he said wouldn’t it be cool If they named a street or road after me, I’ll go down in history. Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier

Based on this discovery, the Knoxville City and Knox County governments have decided to fulfill this request of a southern hero, who was born in Tennessee and fought with the original Vols at the Alamo, by renaming a street after him.

Kingston Pike will be renamed Davy Crockett Boulevard in his honor. Knox County representative Merv Johnson, in a public statement last week, said “We’re not sure Kingston Pike actually even goes to Kingston. Nobody’s ever been beyond Watt Road. We don’t even really know what a Pike is. Do you? So it seems only natural to take a road with a meaningless name and honor our hero with it.”

Ceremonies are scheduled for late next month. Edwin Appleby, a descendent of Davy Crockett, will be in attendence for the ribbon cutting.